RAPS Awards Program

The RAPS Awards Program celebrates individuals who have helped establish high standards for the regulatory profession and inspired the community to make extraordinary contributions to the field and to RAPS.

Each year, a volunteer team of regulatory experts selects outstanding individual who have gone above and beyond their professional expertise and commitments to provide for the greater good of regulatory affairs. These exceptional individuals receive awards including the Founder's Award, Community Leadership Award, Rising Star Award and Patient-Centered Health Award.

New for 2022 are two awards – Article of the Year and Best Book of the Year – that recognize the significant contributions and thought leadership demonstrated by writing for RAPS.

Awards are presented each fall at RAPS Convergence.

The world of regulatory is growing quickly and RAPS relies on the community to support our awards program so we can recognize the best of the best in the profession. Do you know of someone who goes above and beyond? We want to know. Please submit/email their information to awards@raps.org to start our vetting process. We appreciate you recognizing your colleagues and representing regulatory in the world we live in today.

AWARDS

The Founder’s Award

The Founder’s Award recognizes exemplary regulatory professionals and is the profession’s highest award. Honorees have:

• shaped regulatory policy and practice.
• made a positive impact on the profession through education and mentoring.
• volunteered time to leadership pursuits such as serving on the RAPS board or Fellows’ program.
• promoted healthcare and patient well-being.
• advanced regulatory agility.
• raised awareness of the value of regulatory.

The Community Leadership Award

The Community Leadership Award recognizes RAPS members who have built networks and supported regulatory professionals in their communities. Awardees have:

• served as RAPS ambassadors.
• engaged for at least three years in chapter or local activities, including networking and outreach.
• partnered with other organizations to further the profession.
• provided thought leadership in the regulatory profession via conference presentations or authorship.

Rising Star Award

Rising Star Award recognizes promising individuals early in their career who demonstrate initiative and exhibit a passion for strengthening the community. Awardees demonstrate great promise as an early-stage professional by:

• being actively involved in the regulatory community.
• engaging in education and networking to expand their knowledge and skills.
• volunteering with a regulatory/quality/related professional organization.
• actively participating in professional events/conferences.
• engaging in relevant online discussion forums.
• regularly going above and beyond at work.

This award is intended to recognize individuals who are at Levels 1 and 2 of the RAPS Regulatory Competency Framework.

Patient-Centered Health Award

Patient-Centered Health Award recognizes groups, organizations or individuals who have made a significant impact to advance patient-centered policy, product development or regulatory decision making. Candidate organizations:

• promote patient-centric healthcare to improve the lives of patients and caregivers.
• partner with regulators/HCPs/governments/NGOs/industry to advance patient-centric regulatory decision making.
• provide education that has raised awareness of the challenges faced by patients and caregivers.
• been in the industry for more than three years.

This award is a periodic, special recognition of no more than two organizations each year. It is geographically neutral and lifecycle agnostic. Ideally, awardees will have a RAPS connection, but this is not mandatory. Award winners will be announced publicly to promote the importance of public health within regulatory policy and frameworks.

Article of the Year

Article of the Year celebrates the most thought-provoking feature article published in Regulatory Focus in the year prior to Convergence. The year will run from June to May. To be selected, an article must be:

• clear and easy to read.
• improves knowledge of an important regulatory topic
• useful and applicable to issues in the reader's daily work in regulatory, quality, or a related field.

Best Book of the Year

​Best Book of the Year celebrates one outstanding, original topical book published by RAPS in the year prior to Convergence. The year will run from June to May. To be selected the book must:

• present new material that fills a gap in regulatory knowledge on an emerging, cutting-edge, or state-of-the-art topic.
• be factually accurate.
• requires minimal feedback from peer-reviewers.
• strictly adheres to the RAPS book style guide.
• be relevant to the information needs of the intended audience, as designated in the book proposal.
• be well organized, easy to follow, and includes figures and tables to accurately illustrate and support complex ideas and topics.

Meet Past RAPS Award Recipients